Here in the Triad of North Carolina, where Rinaldo Church serves with multiple campuses, Pastor Alan, your wife leads a ministry for women. Awakenings is a ministry that's been going on for years, and truth be told, and I think a lot of people could give testimony to this, Anne may be the best communicator that we've got in the family.
My wife, wonderful Anne, she is full of wonder and full of joy, who can tell a story like none other, walks in the deep, deep things of the Gospel. She leads and teaches a ministry for women called Awakenings. Awakenings, a ministry of Rinaldo Church for women everywhere. The new semester has just begun. You don't want to miss this season. The theme is spirit-filled living.
It's called This Girl is on Fire. Thursday mornings at the Rinaldo Village Campus and the Rinaldo Kernersville Campus. Info at RinaldoChurch.org slash Awakenings. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Allen Wright.
Over and over, God is saying, I want you to know yourself as an owner, as an heir. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in this series, Increase, as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program today, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now, available to you for your donation this month to Allen Wright Ministries. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAllen.org. That's PastorAllen.org or call 877-544-4860.
That's 877-544-4860. We'll have more on this later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching.
Here is Allen Wright. Don't post in these people you're following and celebrate them. Why? Because all things are already yours. Paul is saying that though we're tempted to attach ourselves to a personality, a celebrity, to be tempted to imitate someone else or piggyback on someone else's success or how tempted we are to feel insecure about our own unique role, that there's a way to overcome all of this kind of insecurity and temptation. This truth, all things are yours. Paul's saying that when you feel disproportionately unimportant or insignificant in the face of others who have all kinds of worldly acclaim or success. And when our culture tries to teach you that you have to be linked to the right group or the right people and it causes all these divisions that we see in our world around us, don't do that. You don't need to do that because when you feel like that and you feel like you need to pretend just a little bit or come across as someone that you're not really or that you need to impress people or you need to do it because of some insecurity inside of you, you don't have to do that.
Why? Because all things are yours. And when you think about maybe just giving up, maybe not caring anymore because you feel too small or you feel too little or you feel too unaccomplished and you feel that despair crouching at your door.
Then you have an antidote to that. And it's this powerful word. All things are yours. It's not the it's not the answer, the antidote that you would have maybe expected, but it is what Paul says that is the solution to that sort of insecurity that breeds all these divisions. I was so taken by a sermon that John Piper preached on this text some years ago, the former pastor of the church, a Bethlehem Baptist and well-known author. It's a gorgeous jewel of a sermon.
And every now and then I just draw from something. And this is one of those cases where I hardly know where his his beautiful thought and where my own inspiration, where that line is. So I just just want to commend that sermon to you and say I'm drawing from it significantly. All things are yours.
He titled his message. And I just I'm just taken by the fact that that when God surprises you with a solution, an answer that you don't expect that is worth really digging into and going, what does he mean by that? And how could it possibly strengthen us, energize us, inspire us and transform us to hear God say to us, all things are yours or to say, as we have in our New Year's blessing, the world is yours. It is a is a garden given to you by God to master and to rule with him today. So you can imagine how even your smallest plantings can grow so vast in the days to come.
That's what we've been thinking about. All things are yours, whether Apollos or Cephas. And he begins to list these specific people. And then he has a sort of litany of all the things that are yours. And he even includes himself. Paul is yours.
Listen to Piper's words about this. Paul is yours, your father in the faith, the one who betrothed you to Christ, the one who the one who suffers countless hardships to build you up. The most prominent apostle outside Israel, the one who was called up into paradise, the writer of scripture. You are not his. He is yours.
You don't need to scrape for a few minutes of his attention. Every minute of his life now and forever and everything that he does and says serves your greatest and lasting joy. He is yours. The empty place inside of you that makes you feel inferior, that place that makes you feel like you're inferior to Paul. So you've got to you've got to cling to his inner circle, that part of you that makes him a celebrity in your eyes, that that somehow is satisfying this inadequacy that you feel.
You don't need to feel that way because he's yours. God's given him to you. He's given him to the body of Christ. And what what Paul, I think, is saying here is and listen strong to this. There's not some spiritual blessing that someone else has that you do not already also have in Christ. There's not some access to God that someone else has that you don't have the great preachers, the teachers. Neither they nor the people who follow them have some special pathway to intimacy with Christ and joy and Christ that you do not have. All these all these apostles, they were given to you.
Wow. And then he says, all things are yours. The Paul, the apostles, Cephas or the world. The world is yours.
The world is yours. God made this world from the overflow of his own beauty and creativity and goodness. And then he entrusted it to humanity to have dominion in it. This means that the biblical worldview doesn't say, oh, how fortunate we are to have evolved from primordial sludge, because there happened to be by chance a planet that had all the right conditions for life. No, this this and all of the biblical narrative says the opposite, says that God created the planet with you in mind. That he created the vegetation that you would need and the vegetation that your livestock would need. And he created the kind of atmosphere that you would need for your lungs to breathe, the kind of oxygen that you need to breathe and placed you in exactly the right spot in this particular solar system, so that it would be the temperatures that your body could tolerate and need. He put all of this together because he has made it with with humanity and mind.
Wow. This is what the Bible says. You didn't evolve because the planet just happened to fit. You were made by God in his own image. And then you were given all these things. I'm saying he gave you the mountains and the streams for you to go fishing for your trout. He gave us the green grass and the mini Bermuda variety to give us fast, nice golf greens. He made mountains for you to climb. He made oceans for you to swim in. He made rainbows for you to adore. He gave you light so your eyes could see. God has given you the world.
All things are yours. He owns it. He made it, but he's given it you to enjoy and to subdue and to reign and to have mastery in. Why do you need to feel inadequate? Why do you need to feel small?
Why do you need to feel like the people that follow Apollos or Cephas are more blessed than you? Paul says, because God has given it all to you already. And life. Piper says you are not attached to life. It is attached to you. Oh, is it not extraordinary how life finds a way out of the cracks in the sidewalks, out of out of dry and barren places where still life emerges in the depths of the ocean where there is no light. And yet they find life that is there.
Why? Because God has given life to you. Life itself and breath, just as he breathed life into Adam and Eve in the beginning and made them living souls.
So he has breathed life into you. Life is yours. And in Christ's life, eternal is yours.
All things are yours. He even lists death here and death. How is death yours rather than you belonging to death? It is said well in the famous poem of John Donne. Death be not proud, though some have called the mighty and dreadful for thou art not so for those whom thou thinkest thou dost overthrow. Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me from rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be much pleasure. Then from thee much more must flow and soonest our best men with thee do go.
Rest of their bones and souls delivery. One short sleep past and we wake eternally and death shall be no more. Death thou shalt die. We do not belong to death. Death is our gift to transport us into eternal life, even in our death.
We are, Paul says, like a seed. And he says in First Corinthians 15, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. He says later in that chapter, oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?
Because death in the end serves the Christian by transporting us into the very presence of God. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present, he said. Right here, right now, today, in your life, all is yours. Or, he says, or the future. The future is yours. A future with God, a future of reigning with Christ. All is yours.
All are yours. What a statement. That's Alan Wright. And we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact? We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose. In Pastor Alan Wright's brand new six week video series called Made for More, you'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God given purpose in the world. Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100 year impact.
The video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series Increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your Made for More audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership. Contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org.
Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. He's saying if you saw things rightly, you'd realize that God has given you all these blessings already. And you don't need to strive for them.
You don't need to jockey for position in order to get them. You don't need to be divided. You can be one in Christ because for each of you individually and for you corporately, all things are yours.
How is this possible? He says at verse 23, you are Christ's and Christ is God's. You belong to Christ. You as a Christian, this is what it means. You now abide in him and he abides in you. So there is a unity, a union, a coming into the very person of Christ who has come into your life.
We're talking about spiritual and mystical things. But this is the way the Bible describes it, that you are attached to God. And Christ, therefore, is yours and you're in him and he's God. And so everything of God is in Christ. And so everyone who is in Christ, therefore, has all the blessings that should have been reserved just for Christ. This is what makes Ephesians 1 3 one of the most powerful verses in your Bible.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We don't deserve the blessedness. We haven't earned it.
We could never merit it. Adam forfeited it. But God sent his son as a second Adam who could live the life that Adam didn't live and live a perfectly righteous life on your behalf and mine so that there has been a human being who never sinned. And that human being who never sinned then went to the cross and he took upon himself the sin of the world so that anyone who would trust in him would not only be forgiven, but would be credited with his own righteousness. And this, this, this and this alone is why you have been made, the Bible says, a co-heir with Christ himself.
Romans 8 16. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God and if children then heirs and heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, you are if you are in Christ, you are an heir of God. Paul says it in Galatians also chapter four verse six and because your sons God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying Abba Father, so you're no longer a slave, but a son and if a son then an heir through God. And God has always wanted his people to know themselves as heirs so that they would revel in the joy of their inheritance so that they would appropriate what he has given to them. And so that they would take ownership in their stewardship of the mission that he's put before them.
We're inspired to far greater heights when we know ourselves to be heirs than when we act and feel like slaves. Right from the beginning if you would just go through the word of God you just see it like it's just it's there it's in it's in relief it's highlighted as bold for us to see over and over God is saying, I want you to know yourself as an owner as an heir. So in the beginning, that's what he says to Adam and Eve. He says be fruitful and multiply and fill this earth and have dominion and subdue it take ownership of this place that I've put you in that so beautiful tend to this garden, watch over it. You're an owner to Abraham and Genesis 12 to he says I'll make of you a great nation, and I'll bless you, and I'll make your name great, so you'll be a blessing. I want you to take ownership of this Abraham, you are going to have a nation. Wow, he gave Moses the promise of a land right from the beginning when he was calling him to be the deliverer Exodus 3 seven the Lord said, I've surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters and know their suffering. I've come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptian so God has mercy and grace to deliver but that's not just all he delivers so that why to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. He doesn't just want to liberate the slaves. He wants the slaves to own a new land that is there, and then take ownership of it. So they come out of Egypt and even as they're being delivered a strange thing the Lord ordered them to plunder the Egyptians Exodus 12 35 the people of Israel had also done as Moses told them for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry for clothing and the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians so that they let them have what they asked thus they plunder the Egyptians isn't that crazy.
They're in a haste to get out of Egypt and as they go, they're like, hey, I like that. I like that silver goblet. They're going to have that. Yeah, sure have that.
That's a nice gold necklace. They're going to have that. Yeah, have that and they're just giving them their stuff. What is happening here is a picture of when you are delivered when you are saved as soon as you are God wants you to begin to understand that there is an inheritance for you and we're not talking about money and physical things material things. So there is that we're talking about the spiritual riches of who you are in Christ when he called Joshua to go and boldly lead the people into the promised land that the others had not believed was really theirs.
Now, Joshua who believes it God says to him in Joshua 1 3 every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon. I've given you you got ownership of it. It's yours.
It's yours all things are yours. Even the prophet Jeremiah gets a word from the Lord when the people are exiled in the worst time in their lives in history exiled in Babylon and they're in a faraway land and yet the word of the Lord comes at Jeremiah 29 for the God of Israel to all the exiles whom I've sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and live in them plant gardens and eat their produce take wives and have sons and daughters take wives for your sons. Give your daughters multiply there do not decrease even in their land of exile God's saying take some ownership here all things are yours, but we're in exile.
We're in Babylon. Ah, yes, but that's temporary all things are yours live like it act like it. So what happens and so I want you to see is that when you understand all things are yours when you understand how much God has done for you and how much grace has been poured out towards you and you begin to see yourself as an heir and a co-heir with Christ.
What it does is the opposite of make you idle lazy and unmotivated. That's what people are afraid of Allen right today's good news message. The world is yours in our series increase a Pastor Alan is back with us in the studio sharing his parting good news thought for the day stick with us.
You're made for more than your span of years on this earth. What might happen if you start taking the long view of your impact. We need to know what matters most to us so we can pass down our values on purpose in Pastor Alan writes brand new six week video series called made for more. You'll discover the power of your lasting legacy as he leads you through a simple process to clarify your family core values and God given purpose in the world.
Pastor Alan will also help you dream to imagine your 100 year impact the video series is accompanied by a practical study guide with templates and worksheets. You'll also receive the full length preaching series increase that exposes the biblical principle of generational blessing. Make your gift to the ministry today and get your made for more audio video bundle as our thank you for your partnership contact us today and discover the power of your lasting legacy. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support when you give today. We will send you today special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries.
Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website Pastor Alan.org back here in the studio to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day from the teaching the world is yours and Pastor Alan for the person listening who's discouraged maybe even depressed and hard to get out of bed in the morning and you're suggesting the world is is mine the world is ours. How do we deal with that when we're going through some really hard places and Paul and our text says let no one boast in men for all things are yours and what we're exploring is the relationship between why Paul would say all things are yours is the antidote. To the people in Corinth having a tendency to try to follow after a man Apollos or Cephas or and for Paul to come in and say the reason that you can be secure and you don't have to try to be an imitator of other people and you don't have to be phony and you don't have to be in the right click and be on the inside is because you need to know this all things are yours. The world life itself if he says even death is yours meaning that you don't belong to it. It is it is ultimately your gateway to heaven. So you if you're in Christ, then you're Christ and Christ is God's he says and that means that therefore all this that should have been reserved only as blessing for Christ is now shared with you.
It's it is the most motivational and energizing thought that I can conceive of to think that God has invited you into a partnership with him the creator of the cosmos in which he made this world for you to have a place of real influence. And if you're feeling really discouraged about that and feel like I don't have any influence right now, then you've probably lost the mentality of the seed because God takes the long view and the smallest seed. That's what changes things small small seed. I looked up the picture of the seed of a sequoia.
They're not very big and those trees that grow big enough redwoods grow big enough that drove cars through them and your life's like that. So don't be discouraged about the small beginnings. Don't be discouraged. If you don't have the evidence of all the fruit yet your life's a seed you're being invested and you're making a difference. Today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries.
